Omaha daily bee., 1887-12-13

perjury in procuring land titles. and
conspiracy to defratG the government
through the coffAt use Of our
land laws some &Ehty-cight per-
sons availed themselves ~ the statute Of
limitations and thus confessed their
guilt. The testimony developed the
fact that very many OF these men had
been paid from S. to $40 each to sign
certain title papersand that they never
saw the land and never attempted to
occupy or improve II, while the rascal
who hired them TO swear falsely sold the
tracts to cattle company. All this is
well known 10 Mr.. Dorsey. aud that the
men would not havk escaped the peni-
ten,iary il the republican officials of the
territory had done their duty in secur-
ing indictments in season. But Mr..
Dorsey says there is not n grain or
shadow OF truth" in the charge that
land frauds have been committed Gin
New Mexico "to any extent" In speak
ing of an accomplished scoundrel Of the
last century Thomas Carlyle says there
was not truth enough in him TO make Il
real tie Of | suspect that Mr.. Dorsey
is his lineal descendant.
But hear him further. In speaking
Of the right OF citizens to take 100
acres Of land and pay for it as desig-
mated by law, at the rate of $l.25 per
acre. he says: THE person entering
this land must swear that he is doing it
for his own use and benefit. and not
with the view of selling it," This is
true; but in the eases just cited. which
are mere samples OF prevalent New
Mexican frauds, the men who pre-
tended to enter their tracts swore
falsely, and the lands passed at once
into the clutches of cattle company.
just as Mr.. Dorsey is we'll understood to
have secured the title to his lands on
the Una de Cato grant. And he de-
fcnds this disgraceful perversion of the
pre-cmption law. He says: Before
the title passes to the pre-emptor he
pays the government the price of the
land" and that "the government is not
defrauded." 1t is true the government
does not lose the price of the land. and.
therefore, according to this logic. if
Mr.. Dorsey can hire one hundred mid
dle-men for few dollars each toacquire
| that many quarter sections of land by
perjury. and convey them to him. it is II
| legitimate business. The pre-emption
law, it is true, only permits one person
| to acquire 100 acres but on the Dorsey
| plan he can acquire 100000. and that
| law thus becomes the instrument
| through which the great curse of
| monopoly which it was designed to pre-
vent is fastened upon the country.
Everybody knows that the pre-emption
law subordinates the question of reve
nue. to the policy of actual settlement
| and tillage in homesteads. When it
was passed in 1S4l the treasury was full
| to overiowing from the records of sales
| of the public lands in large bodies for
| speculative purposes, thus fatally him
| dering the settlement and development
of the country. After long wrangle
in congress over our ugly surplus. it
| was divided among the states. and we en-
tered upon Il new dispensatiOn, inspired
| by the purpose thereafter to dedicate
the public lands to the uses of landlcss
men who would personally appropriate
| them in limited allOtlhents, not revenue.
| but the settlement of the lands, was the
dominating idea: and this was after
wards still more strongly emphasized in
| the passage of the homestead law. But
the moral vision OF Mr.. Dorsey sees
nothing wrong in nullifying both these
laws, and making them the engines of
monopoly and robbery through the de-
testable agencies of bribery and perjury.
| As | have shown. hes denies. absolutely.
that any frauds have been committed
under them in New Mexico, and then
brazenly defends the very villianies l
have charged upon him and his kind.
Such is the gospel of LAND stealing" ac-
cording to ST. stephen. 1t is Dorseyism.
pure and simple, in its unveiled ghastli-
ness: and turn away from it and mer-
| cifully draw the curtain over it while
proceed with my task.
He asserts that have charged the
supreme court of the United States with
joining hands with the plunderers of
the public domain. There is not a SEN
tence or word in my article which can
be tortured into any such meaning, and
| Mr.. Dorsey. who carefully read it for
the purpose OF reply, knows this to be
| true.
He says that my article implies that
all the secretaries of the interior from
1861 to 1855, all the commissioners OF
the general land Office and all my pre-
decessors in Office were dishonest and
corrupt men. This statement is a gross
eXaggeration, and it is. moreover, a
mere begging of the question. Quite a
number of the officials referred to are
involved in my exposure. and the rec
ords Of the government will identify
them. Are my facts authentic. Mr..
Dorsey makes no attempt to controvert
them. which he certainly would have
done if he had been able. but with up
lifted hands and the whine of n convict
begs that the officials whom | have an
raigned as his accOmplices shall be
shielded from the right of search.
Mr.. Dorsey says the committee on
public lands OF the house OF representa-
tives during the time was chairman
reported favOrably bills granting lands
to railroad corporations covering more
than half of all the lands granted to
railroads in the United States, which
bills passed congress as Il result of such
report. In these statements he does
not refer to the vast areas granted tC
our great traus-cOntinantal railways
respecting which he makes no charge
against me. He speaks only of the fer
tile lands granted in Illinois, Iowa, and
other western states, which were not
granted to railroad corporations at all
but to the states themselves. The en-
tire aggregate of these lands was &
small fraction only of the many
millions granted to our Pacific
railways, by bills reported from tn.
committee on Pacific railroads and moi
by the committee on public lands. Mr.
Dorsey should also have remembered
that even as to these moderate grants
for which he holds me responsible,
had only one vote as a member of thu
committee, a majority of which made